Making the business case for step change

In recent years, Forum has witnessed an important shift in how many of our partners scrutinise the financial case for sustainability. We're becoming accustomed to partners asking for advice not on the intangible benefits of a fringe initiative, but rather, for help on building a solid financial case for customer-facing efforts - which increasingly take the form of new products, services and business models. Finance officers, product managers and business development executives are increasingly willing to try these -if an acceptable level of financial returns can be predicted and achieved with confidence. This makes perfect sense - why would a manager sign off on an ostensibly 'sustainable' project with uncertain profitability, when competing, traditional opportunities have fully quantified costs, benefits and profit expectations? read more